


Chaos Corps

by TesseractTown



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-22 16:01:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22652548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TesseractTown/pseuds/TesseractTown
Summary: After the defeat of Salem, Ironwood is still on the edge. Teams RWBY and JNOR. Along with Pietro, Maria, and Penny.Robyn and Qrow are being sentenced to execution. Clover is torn if he wants to save Robyn and Qrow, or if he wants to continue to follow Ironwood.What will they do when Salem is preparing her next attack, but they are enemies of Atlas, and who knows what Ironwood has said about them to the rest of Remnant?
Relationships: Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi
Comments: 45
Kudos: 55





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! This is my first fic so I hope I did well! Thank you for coming by!

What is that lunatic doing? Trying to get us all killed? 

I rush over to the door, slam my fist against the button, and jump out. Behind me, the ship crashes into the ground. I land a moment later with a bad gut feeling in my stomach and I run across the snowy tundra as fast as I can. I’m glad the snow isn’t much deeper. 

My one priority is finding Qrow. My eyes flicker across the wreckage as I arrive and finally find his body lying down in the snow. At this moment I have no care for the General’s orders. Qrow’s eyes are closed--but I can see his chest slowly rising and falling. I let out a heavy sigh of relief as I rush up next to him and get on my knees. I check his pulse, which seems as close to normal as it should get. I pull out my scroll and request medical transport. 

I hear a sickening laugh behind me that belongs to Tyrian Callows. 

“What a cute reunion,” Tyrian continues to laugh as I pull out Kingfisher, “it would be such a shame if, well, he died.” 

At that moment, Tyrian’s mechanical stinger comes flying at Qrow. What happened as the stringer was coming at Qrow all seemed in slow motion. My eyes widened as I screamed. I threw myself in the line of fire holding Kingfisher to hopefully block the blow. Tyrian’s stinger hits Kingfisher as a rumble echoes throughout the tundra, “Going to try to save him, are you?” Tyrian retracts his stinger as I quickly get up to my feet, “I’m sorry, but you won’t be able to protect your... precious boyfriend.” 

Tyrian starts to laugh again as I swing my fishing rod backward and then forwards, wrapping it around his arm and then pulling. He’s agile--I need to get him off balance. I send him flying over my shoulder into the air. He switches to his guns and fires at me, but I swing my weapon around and block all the bullets. As Tyrian lands, his Aura shutters, but doesn’t break. I try to hook him again, but this time he grabs the line, tugging it. Kingfisher goes flying through the air and lands a few meters behind him. 

Tyrian charges at me, ready to strike, I duck quickly and roll to the side as I run for Kingfisher. Tyrian lands where I used to be and he quickly turns his head to look behind him, fury on his face. He shoots another round of bullets at me, and most miss. Then a stray bullet strikes me in the shoulder. My Aura drops down to about half. 

I glance over to Qrow, who is still knocked out. Oblivious to the fighting taking place. I can’t look long. Tyrian’s right on top of me. I grab Kingfisher just in time to block his weapons from hitting my face. 

I push Tyrian back as I throw my line to the top of the fallen ship, and it wraps around a large piece of metal. Lucky cast. I pull myself up to the top of the ship. I run along the wreckage of the roof and throw my line at Tyrian’s lower body. He uses his tail to deflect my line, which comes flying back up into the barrel of Kingfisher. 

Tyrian takes this moment to jump onto the ship and comes flying at me. I jump off the ship to avoid the blow, and Tyrian stops abruptly as he sees I am not there anymore. He jumps off after me. 

As I round the corner to the other side of the ship, I see an opening. I went back into it and waited for Tyrian to round the corner. This’ll work. I’m good bait. Sure enough, Tyrian flies around the corner, and I wrap my line around him and land a punch on his face. He falls to the ground, but he tugs on my line, which sends me flying forward as well. He sticks out his blades and slices me across the face, breaking my aura. He laughs again as I feel blood trickling down my face. 

I see Tyrian’s eyes briefly flicker to Qrow, I see him dash towards Qrow, and I dash after him. I see his stinger fly up, aiming for Qrow’s heart. I launch myself between him and the stinger, and it grazes me just under my shoulder. 

I groan loudly as I fall down onto Qrow’s chest, my hands gripping the cut on my upper chest. It’s bad. But I’m a lucky man. Above us, the medical transport I called starts to land. “It looks like my time is up, better luck next time!” Tyrian runs off into the distance. 

My eyes droop as the poison starts to make its way into my system. I smile softly. I managed to protect Qrow, and he’ll be fine. As for me, due to where the poison was injected, I probably don’t have long before it makes it to my heart. I see the ship land in the distance and a medical team running towards us. My eyes flicker shut as I feel them move me onto the stretcher. 

Through the next few days, I was in and out of consciousness. I couldn’t bring myself to open my eyes, but I could feel my surroundings vaguely. I could hear the door opening and closing, I have no clue how much time it seems to get away from you. 

I slowly crack my eyes open and am blinded by the light that reflects off the white floor and walls. Who thought putting white walls in hospitals was a good idea? I hear the door open, and I slowly tilt my head over to the sound, seeing Elm walk into the room. I swear her eyes about popped out of her head as she runs out of the room to go get the doctor. Marrow is behind her, and his head slowly turns as he watches her go. He slowly peeks into the room and walks in waving, his tail wagging behind him. He plops down on the couch that is situated near the wall by the door. 

Elm then comes rushing in through the door and looms over the bed, “I would hug you, but I’m sure the doctor would kick my ass for that!” I smile at Elm as the doctor comes in and tells Elm to move to the side. The doctor starts to check all my vitals.

“Looking all good,” the doctor is interrupted by the General walking in. The doctor turns and nods to General Ironwood then continues, “You should be good to go, but you need to take it easy for awhile.” 

She turns to the General, “So no missions till I clear him for them.”

The General turns to me. “I’m so relieved you are awake,” he says, too stiffly. “We have much to discuss when you are feeling better.” 

He turns around and walks out. Just like that. And nobody stops him, because he’s the General. Is that all he really came to say? 

But I don’t have long to dwell on James. News of my awakening spreads fast. It isn’t long before all the other Ace Ops and Winter come to the room. Why are we all in here when I could leave? Not sure. 

Winter, though, takes a more formal approach, “Glad you are awake Clover. We have much to discuss. Please close the door, Harriet.” Harriet moves to close the door, flicking the lock on it as she goes and leans up against the wall. Winter walks to the end of the hospital bed and folds her hands in front of her.

“Clover, I am going to give you a recap of what happened while you were out. First and foremost, we defended against Salem, but at the cost of Mantle being torn to shreds. Team RWBY along with Team JNOR, Penny, and the Happy Huntresses are a priority threat. If any of you see them, detain them immediately. Qrow and Robyn have been detained, and are currently being held in the prison,” Winter pauses for a moment, hesitating, “and the General sentenced them to execution as of this morning.” 

She pauses as she looks around to see all the shocked faces of the Ace Ops. This was clearly not public knowledge. I open my mouth to speak, but she cuts me off, “It will be broadcasted throughout Atlas and the remains of Mantle. The General wants to show what will happen to anyone who betrays him.”

I throw myself off the bed and shove my face close to her, and with gritted teeth I state, “What the hell is the General thinking? Sentencing them to execution? They haven’t done a damn thing wrong!” Winter’s face falls briefly. If I weren’t up in her face, I wouldn’t have been able to see it.

She regains her posture quickly and steps back. “This is what the General wants, Clover, and it would be smart of you to not speak out against him. The execution will take place tomorrow evening, as he wants to be able to move on and focus on hunting down Team RWBY and their friends. But we are hoping that by announcing this, they will reveal themselves, as they want to save Qrow and Robyn. Qrow has family, and Robyn has her friends. We are going to be planning for this outcome and hopefully detain the majority of them. Clover, we are expecting you to be present for this as well, but you will just be spectating the whole ordeal.” 

I shake with rage as I push past her and slam the door behind me. I quickly move to get out of the hospital and go to my room. I sit down leaning up against the door, my face in my hands. Why would the General kill Qrow? He has done absolutely nothing wrong. I slam my fist against the floor. This is the tipping point, I refuse to let the General kill Qrow. I stand up slowly as I turn towards the door. 

I have always trusted the General with my life. I’ve always been loyal to Atlas. Do I really want to do this? What do I really believe in? My hand shakes fiercely as I put it on the doorknob, as a loud knock from the door shakes me out of my trance. 

I crack the door open and see Winter. I slam the door in her face. I hear her sigh from the other side of the door. “Look, Clover. Let me in, please. I have something to tell you. I can’t tell you through a door.”

I open the door and let her inside, despite not wanting to. She finds a chair and sits down, and her face falls into a more relaxed manner, “I know this might be really hard on you, Clover. I know you and Qrow were close. It’s also hard on me too,” Her face almost looks like she has more to say on that, “But I do believe we, I mean you, can get through this. I was around you and Qrow way more than the General, and I can tell you two were close. Do not go against the General’s orders. That is the last thing Atlas needs right now.” Winter stands up and heads for the door, “But the real reason I came to speak to you is the General wants to speak to the both of us.”

I idly follow Winter to General Ironwoods’ office, taking in all that is Atlas Academy. This is my home. He walks into the Generals office, closing the door behind him. Winter stands to attention, “General.”

The General stands up, “Thank you, Winter. Thank you, Clover, for being here. I called both of you here to discuss the pressing matters of Atlas and the rebel group.” He paused and walked to the front of his desk, “First and foremost, Qrow and Robyn’s execution will take place tomorrow promptly at 6pm. I expect both of you to be present. Secondly, if the rebel group doesn’t show up, we are going to need to divert some resources into finding them. Clover, I think you would be best at that, as you’ve spent the most time around them. While doing all of this we will need to protect Atlas against Salem. She could strike again any time now. I know you are not in any condition to fight, Clover. But,” he grabs Kingfisher, which was sitting on his desk, and hands it to me, “I had Pietro repair this for you. It should be good as new. After tomorrow’s execution, I will give both of you more orders depending on what happens. Go get some rest, both of you. We are going to be very busy from now on.”

I turn around and start to walk out, I push open the door and step out, a scowl plastered all over my face. I continue to walk hastily towards my room as I feel a tap on my shoulder. I whip my head around to see Marrow.

“What do you want, Marrow?” I question, clearly not in a good mood.

“I was, well, wanting to check up on you. You left your hospital room clearly upset, then you got called to the General’s office.”

“I’m fine Marrow, just not feeling the best.” I’m referring to my shoulder, though I’m pretty sure I’m so not okay. 

Marrow’s tail starts to wag, “I trust you, but please know if you need anything I’m here for you.” I continue walking and Marrow lets me go. I’m sure he means what he says, but would he if he was going to do what he is going to do tomorrow. What if Marrow knew he was going to save Qrow and Robyn? As I get to my room I shut the door behind me and fall onto my bed. I just now realize the pain just below my shoulder. I saunter to the medicine cabinet and pull out some pain killers and take them. I go back to my bed and flop down on it as I fall asleep.

I fly out of bed in the morning, searing pain in my shoulder. I am covered in sweat as I remember the nightmare I just had. I couldn’t save Qrow, I didn’t save him, he died. I stood up wobbly and checked the time. 6am. Exactly 12 hours till Qrow and Robyn’s execution. I walk to the bathroom to take a shower.

After my shower, I feel so much more refreshed as I open my door and head for the mess hall. As I walk in, it is strangely quiet. The last time I came into the mess hall, Teams RWBY and JNOR where all in here usually bickering about something. Shortly after he would arrive, Qrow would come in and plop down in a seat next to him. Qrow.. I shake my head as I walk over to get some coffee. Coffee hadn’t always been his favorite drink, but it is something he has recently come to enjoy. I sit down at the table that all the Ace Ops usually sit at and wait for everyone else to come. I sip on my coffee as I see all the Ace Ops all slowly file in and sit down at our table. I ask, “So what’s on the agenda today?”

“For you? Nothing. For us? We have to secure the area the execution will take place in and set the place up. The General is very serious about this,” Elm states.

Marrow continued right after Elm, “By the way, Clover, have you gone and seen Qrow? He looks miserable, no one has even gotten him to talk yet. Robin won’t say a word about it either.” I feel myself tensing up as I don’t respond. Elm takes a cue and changes the subject.

“How have you been Clover? Feeling alright?”

I nod, “I have been feeling alright, I did wake up with pain in my shoulder this morning, but nothing I couldn’t handle.” I finish drinking my coffee as I set it down on the table and get up, “Now if you’ll excuse me.” I get up and exit the room, just wanting to be alone. They’ll never look at me the same way after today. I know we are just supposed to be coworkers, but after you hang out with people for so long, you become more than coworkers, though Harriet would disagree. 

Does Qrow look miserable? It doesn’t seem like Qrow to just accept his fate of getting executed, not at all. Something has to be wrong. My mind swirls with possibilities of what could have happened to Qrow. My breathing grows heavy as I walk outside of Atlas Academy. I see a transport land outside the Academy. I walk up to the pilot, “Where is this transport going?”

The pilot looks down at me, “This transport is going to the execution site, Sir.” I nod as an idea comes to mind.

“Would you mind if I hop on this transport?” I turn around to see the other Ace Ops walking towards the transport.

The pilot, recognizing who I was, nodded, “Go ahead.” I climb into the back of the transport, getting seated as the other Ace Ops climb in, all of them giving me odd looks. Harriet was the first to speak up.

“Why are you here Clover?”

“I came to oversee how this process goes, I have nothing else to do all day.” I smile to give off the impression I am happy to come. Marrow smiles back. Elm pulls the doors shut as the transport takes off and is flying to the town square. 

When the transport lands, I am the last to climb out. The flight was spent in tense silence, nothing much spoken between any of them. As soon as they get off, Harriet starts to bark off orders to the rest of the Ace Ops. I look around the vicinity and find a bench to lounge on. I scan the area that we are in. There are plenty of tall buildings, and I see a few Alleyways that are not blocked off. I look over my shoulder to see all the Ace Ops busy as I go to investigate the alleyways. None of them are dead ends, but one, in particular, had access to a building I didn’t even know existed, I push open the door and see an abandoned building, with stairs going up. I walk up the stairs and see a shattered window. I peek out the window and see we are close to the rooftops of some buildings. Perfect.

I climb back down the stairs and walk out of the alleyway looking at the progress that had been done. Fences had been put up around the area to keep out the viewing public. Elm waves at me and comes running over, “How do you like it?” she asks like she is decorating some room.

“I think it looks just fine!” I put on a fake smile and continue walking forward, “Hey Elm, what time is it?”

Elm pulls out her scroll, “It seems to be around 4! We’ve sure set up a lot in about two hours!”

Elm gets called back over by Harriet. I look over to the side to see Vine and Marrow setting up the centerpiece, presumably that is where Qrow and Robyn will be. I spin my head around to where Elm and Harriet are working on setting up the cameras. I hear some ships fly atop us. There is this certain energy in the air, but I can’t quite pin what it is.

I sit down on the bench for another hour, just watching my team set up the site. Another hour passes and ships start to land, letting off soldiers. Some of the soldiers come into the ring, while others stay outside. It must be about time. People start to come to the square to watch. The Ace Ops come to where I am standing. “It sure is about time to get this thing started. We didn’t work hard for it to go to waste!” Elm joked. But it sure doesn’t sound like a joke to me. It seems like it’s going to be an execution by firing squad. I look up suddenly as I see a rose petal flutter in front of my face. My eyes widen as I shove the petal into my pocket. My eyes scan the area to see if I can find where Ruby is hiding. Let’s really hope they won’t shoot me as I try to get to Qrow and Robyn in time.

I take a deep breath as the cameras start to roll and the prisoner ship rolls into sight. I’m really going to do this. I could just let Team RWBY handle it, but I can’t let Qrow hate me forever. I wouldn’t endanger his nieces. General Ironwood is the first to step out of the transport, he goes and stands behind the firing squad.

Qrow and Robyn exit the transport, both in shackles, being led by Winter. Qrow does look miserable. He is skinnier than normal, has massive bags under his eyes. Just overall looks like he has gone through hell and back. Robyn on the other hand just looks pissed. Qrow glances over in my direction and he stops in what looks to be in shock as he falls over. My heart wrenches. Winter stops as she feels someone stops walking. Robyn’s eyes follow Qrow’s and see me, her eyes widen as well. She turns around and bends down, trying to talk Qrow into getting up. Qrow gets up warily as his eyes are glued to me, uncertainty showing through them. As they get to the middle center, Winter makes sure they are in position, and the firing squad raises their guns as Winter goes to stand by the General. 

“Stop!” My voice echoes throughout the square. Everyone turns to look at me shocked. The General looks like he is about to lose his cool, and Winter looks intrigued by the situation I presented myself in. “I would like to execute Robyn myself.” The General raises an eyebrow and nods. I take a deep breath and walk towards Robyn. Robyn gives me a questioning look, and Qrow, well, looks like he just wants to die. I grab hold of Robin and put my face close to her, I make an angry-looking face, I throw Kingfisher’s hook backward. I click the button on my weapon as we go flying backward. Everyone watched in shock that the leader of the Ace Ops just committed treason. I continue to pull them towards the Alleyway, making our way with haste.

When we hit the alleyway, I motion them to follow me. Both looked shocked, but at this point, they have no choice but to trust me. I hear frantic screaming back in the square as people are confused and panicking. We run to the building I found earlier and climbed up the stairs. I go to the window and look out of it. All of a sudden I see Ruby on the rooftop of the building across from ours, and a ship. I grapple my way over to the roof she is on, “I don’t know how to get them over here.”

Ruby nods, “Leave it to us.” She looks very grateful. She and Yang get Qrow and Robyn across. We all run onto the ship as it takes off. Pietro comes over and takes the shackles off Qrow and Robyn after a little fiddling.

Robyn looks up at me, “Never thought I’d see the day where Clover Ebi would betray the kingdom of Atlas.” 

Her face falls a little bit, but before she can say anything else, Qrow speaks up, sounding like he hasn’t drank anything in days.

“How.. how are you still alive? You got my sword stabbed through your chest!”

I frown as I clearly don’t remember getting stabbed, I walk over to Qrow and engulf him into a hug. 

“I clearly don’t remember getting stabbed, where did you get that from?”

Qrow hiccups as he hugs me back, “When the plane crashed. You fought me Clover, I had no choice but to fight you. Then, then Tyrian stabbed you.”

We continue to hug. 

“I sure don’t remember getting stabbed,” I continue to explain what actually happened. Robyn offers me her hand and it glows green. Both of them looked shocked. 

“I don’t mean to interrupt this reunion, but thank you, Clover, for doing that for us. We are really glad to have you on our side. Not to be a bummer but please get rid of your scroll.”

I pull out my scroll and open it for the last time, there is nothing at all, no messages, nothing. I hesitated as this was the last thing I had connecting me to Atlas, to who I was loyal to, well, used to be loyal to. I open the back and throw it out before closing the door. I turn to Pietro, “I thought you were still working for the General?”

Pietro laughed, “You think I would be working for Ironwood after what he wants to do to my daughter? No can do! But I do still pretend to work for him, just for the intel.”

I nod and turn back and sit down by Qrow, “The General is going to be furious. He was planning for me to lead all the search parties that were going to try to find you guys.”

Ruby nodded, “We figured. We are currently staying down in Mantle, but we will probably need to be moving again soon, I mean we are top priority criminals right now.”

Yang and Ruby get involved in a conversation, as Pietro goes to the front of the ship to talk to Maria.

Qrow turns to look at me, “I can’t believe you are alive, what did I see then? Was it all a dream?”

I smile and nod, “Everything is alright. I only got stung by his stinger and I’m still here. It was all just a nightmare.”

Qrow smiled weakly at me as he wrapped his arms around me, and I wrapped my arms around him.


	2. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the support so far! I’m trying to post as frequently as possible. I’m actually working on chapter 3 to post tomorrow!

The ship starts its descent around the torn up parts of Mantle. I look out the window and down, the heating system is still finicky, flickering off and on. You never know if it is going to be warm or snowing. 

Qrow speaks up, “Pretty isn’t it? Maybe if James could’ve made up his mind we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

I was about to interject to defend the General, but then I remember I’m also a criminal of Atlas now. I committed treason. I put my head into my hands and closed my eyes. I feel a hand on my back, I look up to see Qrow.

“I know that must’ve been hard for you. But I’m really glad you did it, all of us.” 

Qrow offered a supportive smile, I smiled back.

“I just left everything I’ve ever known. I trusted the General with my life. My teams, well they were my friends. Everyone who has ever known me will hate me now, I’m glad I did it too, but it’s really hard for me to leave them.”

Ruby must have been listening to Qrow and I’s chat as she stepped in front of me and bent down to my level and took my hand, “We are your family now.”

Yang chirped in behind her, “You saved our uncle, and while we could’ve done it ourselves, we are forever grateful you did it, no one got hurt in the process.” She paused to think for a moment then continued, “You are one of us now, we have your back if you have ours, and it is pretty clear you do.” 

She holds her fist out, as I give Yang a fist bump.

I smile back at both Ruby and Yang, “Thank you.”

Everyone's heads snap to the front of the ship as we hear Maria yelling, “Ship’s landed! Get off this ship! We got to move it quickly!”

Yang runs over to the door and pushes them open as we all start to jump out. I take a sigh before I jump out. I look around us and see a very broken down house. Not broken down enough to be dangerous, but nonetheless broken down.

Ruby slowly opens the door, as she peeks her head in. I hear Penny say in a loud voice, “Did you bring them back?”

Penny gazes behind Ruby’s shoulder and her eyes lock on me. She instantly draws her weapons. I hold my hands up in the air as a friendly gesture. 

Ruby looks between Penny and me, “He’s friendly, Penny. He actually was the one that saved Robyn and Qrow from execution. He’s now one of us.”

Penny’s face showed surprise as she retracts her weapons. She moves out of the way of the door as we all follow Ruby inside. The inside is a smaller room. There is a table in the middle of the room, with stools sitting around the table. Over on the far side of the room, there are some blankets. 

Around the table sits all of Team JNOR, along with the Happy Huntresses. 

Fiona jumps out of her seat and runs up to hug Robyn, “I’m so glad you are back! We were all so worried!” 

Robyn smiled at Fiona and her team, “I’m glad to be back.” 

She walks over and sits down on an empty stool, seeming to fit in instantly with everyone else. I just stand there awkwardly as everyone else reunites with their loved ones.

“Hey Cloves, I know you might be feeling real awkward. But we are all happy you’re here. Come on,” Qrow grabs my hand and leads me to the table and offers me a seat. I graciously accept as I sit down, Qrow sits down in the seat next to mine.

Ruby grabs a stool and stands on top of it. 

“Hey, kiddo, that’s not safe,” Qrow states as he watches Ruby. 

Ruby frowns but then smirks and stands up there anyway. 

Qrow whispers in my ear, “She takes after me.” I laugh quietly as I nod to Qrow.

“Alright, listen up everyone! First, I shall debrief you on our last mission. We were set up to execute as planned when Clover here stepped in and solved the issue on his own, so I will let him explain.” She smiles and makes a finger gun at me.

“Well, there really isn’t much to say. But I got the firing squad to stop because,” I make quotes with my fingers, “I wanted to execute Robyn myself. I went up to Robyn, grabbed the chains and grappled all of us to an alleyway I found earlier that day. We ran to a building where Ruby and Yang found us and helped us out.” I finish as I glance over at Robyn, then looked back at Ruby. Everyone around the table seems to nod in approval.

Ruby continues, “Well with that in place, we need to make a name for our little group! I personally suggest,” she moves her hands in a rainbow motion, “Rebels of Chaos.”

Everyone around the table laughs at the name and Nora yells, “I have a better name!” She abruptly stands up and climbs onto the top of the table. “HOT PINK CHUNGUS!” 

Everyone all of a sudden bursts out laughing even harder than before. I clap my hands as I laugh.

“Now that is a winner name right there, Nora,” I manage to choke out through all my laughing.

Yang makes a few punching motions, “We should call us the Chaos Corps!”

Ruby looked to consider it, “It sounds professional enough, and sounds hella fun! Everyone agrees we should be called the Chaos Corps?”

Yang pumps her fist in the air, “Hell yeah!”

Ren nods his head while Nora crosses her arms, but is smiling, “I can cause much chaos!”

Ruby looks in our direction. I shrug my shoulders, and Qrow did as well. 

“It sounds good enough, I’ll support you kids in whatever you want as long as it’s reasonable,” I state.

Qrow looks at Ruby. “This man took the words right out of my mouth.”

Ruby claps her hands excitedly, “Then it is decided! We are the Chaos Corps!”

Everyone around the table claps and Qrow speaks up, “Shouldn’t we be worried about the more pressing matters other than a name. We are all priority threats! Salem could come again anytime.” Qrow crosses his arms and looks at Ruby.

Ruby sighs and sits back down on her stool, “We do need to worry about that. But you have to have a little fun after a victory, Uncle Qrow! Lighten up a bit!”

Pietro enters the room with Maria, “What is all this commotion about in here? We can hear you from a few blocks down. Are you wanting Atlas to find us?” Maria says as she enters the door.

Pietro goes over to the corner of the room and pulls out Harbinger and comes and hands it to Qrow, who winces but takes his weapon, “It took me a while, but I finally got my hands on your weapon. Same with you, Robyn.” Pietro gives Robyn her weapon as well. 

“Thank you Pietro, I appreciate it,” Robyn shakes Pietro’s hand. 

Pietro smiles, “I also fine tuned them for you while I was at it!” 

Qrow looks down at his weapon as he puts it away. I can tell he is hesitant to even touch it. I lean over to him and grab his hands, “It was all just a nightmare, remember that. I wasn’t even touched by your weapon. Only Tyrian’s stinger.”

At the mention of the stinger my shoulder flares up I turn around and look at Pietro, “Would you mind checking out my shoulder later tonight? Want to make sure I didn’t tear it up getting those two out of harm's way.”

Pietro nods, “I’d be happy to look at it later tonight. Just let me know when.”

Robyn was next to speak, “So is everyone enjoying the criminal life?”

A few comments were thrown at Robyn, and then everyone turned to me wanting my opinion. I just shrugged. “It’s different from what I’ve known.. and I’ve been a criminal for what? Only a few hours?”

Qrow looks at me worriedly and I smile a reassuring smile his way. 

Ruby continues, “Sometime tomorrow after we’ve all rested we will have another meeting to discuss our next steps. Clover, Qrow, and Robyn, I’d like to talk to you.”

Ruby comes over to where Qrow and I are sitting, Robyn comes over as well.

“So I’m just going to basically explain what is happening around here. We usually send a patrol out to scout the perimeter every hour or so. I’ll give you guys a break for today and tomorrow to recuperate.”

Ruby looks at Qrow and wraps her arms around his waist, “I’m so glad you’re okay, Uncle Qrow.”

Qrow smile at Ruby and ruffles her hair, “I’m glad to be back, kiddo. Good job holding down the fort here.” Ruby smiles at Qrow then runs off to be with her team. Qrow turns to me, “Where off to now?”

“Well, considering I told Pietro to check out my shoulder, I’ll be heading over there for now!” I say as I start to walk to the second floor. Qrow followed behind me, almost like a lost puppy.

“Hey Pietro! I’m here for my checkup!” I exclaim as I arrive at the top of the stairs. Pietro turns around and comes over to me.

“Here Here, sit down. Take off your jacket and shirt please.” I walk over to the chair as I take off my jacket and pull my shirt off over my head. A cold chill hits my skin.

Below us I hear Yang yell, “The heating grid just went off again! Ren! Make us a fire or something!” I hear Qrow chuckle behind me. I turn around and throw a glare in his direction as I shiver a bit. Pietro comes my way and starts to look and prod with the cut, which is stitched together.

After a few minutes of looking he speaks up, “It looks strained, but nothing severe or anything. Just take it easy for the next few days.” I nod as I quickly put on my shirt and jacket.

“Thank you Pietro! I’ll sure take it easy the next few days!” I nod to Pietro and walk back downstairs. I see Team RWBY tackling each other in the corner, while Team JNOR is sitting over by the beds talking. The Happy Huntresses must be doing the rounds.

I sigh and sit at the table. Qrow looks at me and speaks in a soft voice, “I was so scared I lost you Clover, I was so scared.”

I take hold of Qrow’s hand and give it a squeeze. “When I first heard they were executing you and Robyn, I was in my hospital room. I was furious. I got all up in Winter’s face and yelled at her. Then just walked out, slamming the door behind me. I decided that you were more important to me than the General. I knew I couldn’t stand by and let you die, I would have never forgiven myself.” 

I pause to gather my thoughts. “I’m really glad I did it. I’m scared, I left everything I’ve ever known. But it was all worth it to be with you, I wouldn’t change a thing.”

I stand up and give engulf Qrow into a hug. He hugs back and rests his head on my shoulder and whispers, “I wouldn’t change anything either. Having you here with me is all I could ever want.”

The Happy Huntresses push open the door and Robyn announces, “What is up with that damn heating grid? Someone really needs to get the damn thing fixed!” 

Yang rolled her eyes at Robyn, “Better get used to it. It shuts down a lot. But luckily, we got Ren here to make us a fire,” Yang yawns and stretches her arms, “Anyways, I say we all call it a night. We have a long day tomorrow.”

Ruby nods in agreement as everyone starts to head to their beds, “Where am I supposed to sleep, Ruby?” I speak up to ask her.

“Oh! Here let me go get you guys blankets,” she runs off to go get the blankets. When she returns she hands a blanket to each of us. “We only have a few mattresses around here. So just find an empty one.” Ruby says as she crawls into her own bed.

I nod and walk over to an empty mattress and lay my blanket across it. I sit on the bed as I feel the other side dip down. I look over my shoulder to see Qrow sitting on the other side of the mattress, “Hopefully you don’t mind it I sleep on the same mattress as you, what do you say, Lucky Charm?”

I shrug and smile, “You do you Five O’clock Shadow.” 

I throw a wink his way as I lay down under the blanket, my back to Qrow. I feel the bed shift as Qrow gets situated behind me. I close my eyes. Qrow must have thought I had fallen asleep, because not soon after I hear a voice next to my ear whispering, “Good night, Cloves.”

Even though he can’t see it, a smile forms on my lips.

“Salutations!” 

I hear a yell in the house in the morning. I crack my eyes open and rub them as I look over Penny. To the right of me I hear a grunt come from Qrow. He continues to lay there. I look around and see everyone else slowly getting out of bed. Ruby points to Qrow and lets out a stifled giggle. 

I roll my eyes at Qrow and shake him a bit, “Time to get up little birdie.”

I have never seen someone shoot out of bed as fast as Qrow shot out of the bed, “What did you just say to me, Clover?”

I make myself look confused then smirk and place my hand on my hip, “I think you heard me.” 

I hear Qrow grumble to himself as he drags himself out of bed.

“Good morning, Penny,” Ruby says to Penny as she stretches out her arms. 

Ruby walks over to the table and everyone follows. I get myself situated into a seat, and Qrow sits next to me. 

Qrow grumbles loudly, “First thing we should do is get a damn coffee machine,” I chuckle a bit.

Ruby starts to talk, “As you know, we are needing to move headquarters. So today we will be packing to move!” Above we hear an airship fly by, everyone’s eyes widen but after the sound passes everyone exhales a sigh of relief. “But we also need to go out with a bang!” Ruby puts extra effort into her hand guns this time around. “So I suggest we play a game of Hide and Seek 2.0 ft. Team RWBY and Semblances!”

You could see the pure confusion on everyone’s face, including the rest of Team RWBY.

“Did you just make that name up, Ruby?” Weiss questions Ruby.

“Pffff! What made you think that?” Ruby bends over and holds her stomach as she laughs, “But before you make a decision, well you don’t really have a choice, but here is how this game works.” 

She pauses for some dramatic effect, then continues, “We all know how to play hide and seek here? Great. So basically this game is like hide and seek. One person hides and all the rest of the people are trying to find that one person. If you find the person who is hiding, you hide in the same place they are hiding. Last one to find the hider loses? Make sense? But we are allowed to use our semblances!”

Yang speaks up, “Now this sounds fun!”

Blake was next, “Aren’t we trying to not get caught by Atlas?”

Last was Weiss, “Hm, sounds easy enough.”

Qrow and I look at each other and shrug, “Sounds fun,” I mention as I go to lean back, forgetting there is no back. I wobble a bit, but Qrow grabs my arm and pulls me upright.

“Then it is decided! I vote...” Ruby starts but gets cut off by Robyn.

“I’ll hide,” Robyn states as she stands up.

“Great! We have no real way of communication yet, but we will give you a decent amount of time to hide. Don’t hide too far, within the perimeter you guys patrolled yesterday.”

Robyn nods as she runs out the door, May waving as she goes and then turns to Ruby, “We can use our Semblances, can we?”

Ruby nods and smiles as she turns to Yang to talk to her. I turn to Qrow, “You excited for this game of, whatever your niece called it.”

Qrow smirks and nods. 

“I’m always up for a good game, especially one where I can kick their asses!” I couldn’t help myself and I laughed at Qrow. He continued, “Where do you think they got their love for games from? Especially video games,” Qrow quickly raises his eyebrows two times in a row and I burst out laughing again.

“I can see it, I really can Qrow,” I say. “It’s been awhile since I have played any type of game, but this game sounds interesting, I’m excited, plus I have a little push of luck.”

Qrow rolls his eyes at me, “You and your luck. I’m waiting for the day when someone beats you by a long shot. Hopefully it’s me, I have to beat you at cards someday.”

“Maybe someday, but don’t get your hopes up, I have a pretty massive win streak right now,” I wink at Qrow with a smirk on my face.

Ruby goes to the front of the table, “Alright everyone! I’m going to count down and when I get to zero, you can go. Last one to find Robyn has to live with the shame!”

“10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3.2.1…. GO!”

Everyone takes off out of the building, including myself. I turn around the corner and grapple to an antenna on the top of the building and run up the wall as my line retracts in. When I get to the top of the building I turn around to look for Qrow, but he is nowhere to be seen, weird. I sprint forward as I grapple between buildings, keeping my eyes peeled for Robyn. Knowing Robyn, she’d find a spot that isn’t particularly hard to find, but no one would care to look there. I look behind my back to see rose petals flying around. Ruby must be around this area as well.

I see a big gap between the buildings and jump down. I continue to run on the ground, when all of a sudden I trip on a rock, but before I could hit the ground I get caught by someone. I hear Qrow’s voice behind me, “Better luck next time,” I turn around just in time to see him wink at me, then he just disappears. I see a black feather fall down in front of my face, I pick it up and turn it around in my fingers. Was I imagining things? 

I shrug it off as I continue to run, turning corners, frantically running down the alleyways of Mantle. I see Ruby stop in front of me, debating on what way she wants to try. Just as she takes off, I hook her foot, making her fall, I run by, “Whoops, sorry, I was hoping I would get a lucky catch.” I grapple to the the top of a building and pull myself up to the top of the building.

Ruby flies after me, “Don’t think you’ll get away with that one!” 

She transforms her weapon into a gun as she starts to shoot at me. I roll my eyes at her spirit and block her bullets. She transforms her weapon into a scythe and comes charging at me. I run to the side and throw my line her way. It wraps around her scythe, I pull and her scythe goes flying into the air. Ruby uses her semblance as she grabs her scythe mid air and comes down hard onto the roof, shaking the building. My line hits the end of my weapon as we charge at each other again. I slide under her scythe and grapple to a higher up building and run away. I don’t need to spend time fighting Ruby. The more time I spend fighting her, the closer I am to not finding Robyn.

I continue to run and I finally see something flicker in the corner of my eye. I look at my surroundings, and after seeing no one, I run and investigate the shimmer. When I draw near I see it is Robyn’s weapon. I crouch down next to her and whisper, “This is a really good spot, and you get a nice view.”

Robyn is hiding on top of a metal vent. You only can see this spot from one side, but is open enough you wouldn’t think to investigate much more. Robyn whispers back, “I’m surprised no one else has found me yet. Maybe now that you're here, you’ll be their good luck charm.”  
I happen to see a crow fly past us, that damn crow. I throw my line at it, it wraps around the leg of the crow as I pull it in. Robyn looks confused. I reel it in and grab the crow.

“Were you following me? This is the second time I’ve seen you!” 

The crow tilts its head and hops backwards. The crow transforms into... Qrow?

“What the fuck?” I exclaim as I see Qrow appear from the crow I just fished up. Robyn looked just about as shocked as I did.

Qrow chuckled, “Long story short, I can change into a crow,” he smiles, “and thanks for the help Clover.”

Qrow crawls over to lean against the wall I was previously leaning on. “You can seriously turn into a crow?” I ask.

Qrow nods, “Oz entrusted my sister and I with the power to change into birds.” I nod thinking of reasons why he would possibly do that. “Looks like we are the first ones.”

“I will have you know, Qrow, your niece decided she wanted to fight me. All I did was trip her! Then she decided it’d be fun to take my head off or something!”

Qrow chuckled, “Now that sounds like my nieces alright, which one? Ruby or Yang?”

I huffed audibly, “Ruby, she seriously looked like she was trying to kill me!”

I glance over at Qrow as an idea forms into my mind. Robyn whispers, “May is here guys!”

I make a hand motion to May, she comes over to where Qrow and I are, “So his niece tried to kill me today, over a game! So I think it is only fair if we make her lose!” I glance over at Qrow, then over to May, both look intrigued.

“Basically, May you make sure none of us can be seen, everytime someone comes by I will hook them and pull them in too, as long as you hide all of us. Then when Ruby is the only one left, we will declare her the loser.”

Qrow chuckles, along with May. 

“Now that sounds like a fun idea,” May comments.

“I’m in,” Qrow huffs from behind me.

“Me too,” May agrees as she nods, activating her semblance. 

Robyn looks back at all of us and gives us a thumbs up. I crawl to the opening so I can get ready to pull people in. I ready my fishing rod, as they will most likely be moving quickly.

The first we see running by is Weiss. I quickly throw my line out and it wraps around her waist. She looks shocked and about drops her weapon. As she gets to the pipe I unwrap the fishing rod and motion her to go back to where Qrow and May were.

As time goes by, we accumulate most of the people, well everyone other than Ruby. Ruby darts by and I hook her, and reel her in. 

As she falls I say with a smirk, “Darn, I was hoping to get a lucky catch. I guess I might have better luck next time.” I give her a shrug. “Oh, by the way, you lost.”

Everyone around us starts to laugh and Ruby huffs, “You planned this!! This is not fair!”

Qrow stands up and ruffles her hair, “Nothing is fair when you play with us.”

Ruby’s face shows betrayal, “You were in this too Uncle Qrow! I expected better of you!”

Qrow smiles at Ruby, “I know a good idea when I hear one, who was I to disagree?”

Ruby huffs again, “Lets just go back to camp and pack up.”  
As we are walking back to our camp Qrow walks beside me, “I have to tell you, that was a pretty good prank, but she’ll get you back sometime.”

“I only can figure as much, but it was sure worth it in the end.” I add in as we walk.

Ruby turns around, “Partly due to this betrayal you all have bestowed upon me, and partly because it is safer, we are going to be traveling at night! Get packed up! We move at sundown.”

“Not like I have much at all to pack, I brought Kingfisher and myself basically.” I say to Qrow.

“I didn’t have anything when I came, I don’t have much either. Lets go scout out the area while everyone else packs?” Qrow offers. 

I pretend to consider the offer for a moment, “I think I’ll have to accept.” I turn my heel as I turn in the opposite direction, “Let's go.”


	3. 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fairgame moment?

Qrow and I are talking as we walk around patrolling the grounds while our companions are packing up their belongings.

Qrow turns to me, “What do you think we should do next? As much as I dislike Atlas, I was happy. The kids for the first time in who knows how long could have a sense of stability and you know. So much for that.”

I sigh and look at Qrow, putting a hand on his shoulder, “Those kids of yours, they are strong. Most of all, they love what they do. I believe in them. For what to do next? I’m at a loss. We have no clue what the General is up to, and who knows what Salem is doing. I think that whittles it down to priorities. But they all have their priorities. The General, well, is the General. Salem is a long term goal. We can’t just waltz into her, well her whatever, and expect to stop her.”

Qrow takes a moment to consider it. “I’ll bring it up to Ruby on the way there. We should focus on James, but also on having a group prepping and planning for another Salem attack. We do happen to have enough people to do that.”

I nod my head. “When those kids put their heads to something, they’ll get it done. You might as well not even try stopping them. But other than them, who can we trust?”

Qrow instantly replies, “No one. Not till they prove themselves. We have no clue what James has said to the people of Atlas, the news will spread.”

As if on cue, they walk by a screen that is still intact. It flickers to life with General Ironwood standing there. We both stop and turn to watch the screen.

“Kingdom of Atlas. News spreads fast, so I would like to take this moment to address this. During the execution of Qrow Branwen and Robyn Hill, Clover Ebi, the former leader of the Ace Ops, committed treason. He interrupted the execution, only to help Qrow Branwen and Robyn Hill escape. If you see any of these people, which we are referring to as the Chaos Hunters, please call the authorities immediately, and detain them.” The screen flickers to show all of our faces. He is definitely out for us. 

Ironwood continues, “Thank you. This betrayal will not be taken lightly, and my team and I will do everything in our power to detain and execute these traitors to our kingdom!”

I hear a shuffling behind us. I grab Kingfisher as Qrow grabs Harbinger. 

“Whoa, whoa, calm down.” Knowing this voice made me even more alert.

“What are you doing here, Marrow?” 

I turn around to face Marrow, ready to fight if I have to. I really don’t want to have to fight him, but if it comes down to it, I will.

Marrow makes a gesture of putting his arms up. “I’m not looking for a fight, and before you ask, yes, I am alone. But yes, the other Ace Ops are down here in Mantle looking for you.”

Qrow snarls at Marrow, “So what do you want, pup?”

“I simply saw you two watching the General and wanted to come say hello,” Marrow’s tail wags behind him. “But I also care for you, Clover, and I don’t want you to get detained, so I’m giving you a heads up the other Ace Ops are in the area. How have you been, though?”

I frown, but my face goes back to a professional look. “I’m doing just fine. The kids are fun to be around. No spoilers but we put playing hide and seek over priorities.”

That seemed to kick a chuckle out of Marrow. As he seemed to be listening to what someone was saying in his earpiece, he responded, “All clear over in this sector, will be heading back soon, over.” 

His earpiece clicked off and he smiled at us. “Thank me next time.” Marrow then runs off into the distance.

Qrow tugs on my hand as we run towards the house. “We need to go. Now.”

Qrow and I run frantically towards the house. He is clearly worried about the Ace Ops being in the area. As we arrive at the house Qrow grabs the door and opens it as he rushes in. He gives a sigh of relief as he sees everyone just packing up still.

Ruby is the first to speak up, “Uncle Qrow? What’s wrong?”

Before Qrow can say anything I speak up, “The Ace Ops are in the area, we had a run-in with Marrow, luckily he just wanted to talk, but he warned us the other Ace Ops were near and let us go.”

Qrow nods, “What he said.”

Ruby’s eyes widen as she turns around, “Is everyone about done?”

A chorus of yeses goes around the room, “Great! We are moving out! Grab your bags!”

Ruby pushes open the door and waits for everyone, Qrow whispers in my ear, “Be right back.” He walks up to Ruby and starts talking to her. As we start to walk across the ruins that once was Mantle, I finally take a good look around.

From what I got told, the Grimm swarmed Mantle and tore everything to shred. The military was deployed down here, and we did get the majority of Mantle evacuated, but many, many people died that night. Everyone is scared of Salem. She showed her full force that night, and from what I was told, we don’t know why she retreated. She had us on our knees waiting for her to slaughter us.

I am glad I realized the importance of relationships. Before I met Qrow everything was work. There was no time for personal relationships. Work over relationships. But when you look at Team RWBY, they are doing what they want, while still having people to lean on and have fun with. That is what the military strips away from you. It takes away a lot of your free will. 

I’m slowly coming to terms that I did abandon the General. But I haven’t abandoned my kingdom. I’m still protecting them. I’m just running from the authorities while doing it.

I feel a poke on my shoulder, I look over to see Qrow, “Looked a little lost in thought there, Cloves, care to elaborate?”

“I was just thinking about myself as a person, and how I’m glad I realized the importance of relationships. Also a bit about how I’m still protecting my kingdom,” I say. “In the military, I never really had time for myself.”

Qrow laughs. “That is sure something you have plenty of when you work as we do. Plenty of self-reflection time. Especially when you worked alone for half of your life.” 

Qrow throws a smile my way, “But, I also have come to learn the importance of relationships. I always thought no one cared for me and wherever I went I caused destruction. I have since learned that people do care for me a great deal, and my semblance doesn’t define who I am. So while you might struggle coming to terms with abandoning your team and James, just know you have people here for you now,”

I crack a smile. “Didn’t know you were one for pep talks.” Qrow opened his mouth to say something but I cut him off. “But thank you. I really appreciate the advice.”

Qrow smiles back. “Don’t get too flustered, Mr. Ebi.”

I put my hand on my hip, “I’m not flustered, Mr. Branwen, are you?”

Qrow crosses his arms. “Of course not, Boy Scout.”

“Please, I am far from a Boy Scout at this point, what did I even do to deserve that nickname?”

“You did everything you could’ve done to deserve it, Mr. I abide by the law no matter what.”

“I don’t think that is true anymore, Qrow, I did commit treason,” I say through fits of laughter.

Qrow starts to laugh as well, “I mean you do have a point Clover, that’s payback for what you called me this morning.”

I retort back, “I did get you out of bed though didn’t it? I’d do it again.”

Qrow snorts, “Listen up, next time you call me Little Birdie, I will have your head on a platter? Hear me?”

I pull off the most professional looking face I can right now. “Yes sir, yes.”

“Don’t even try me with that Clover, absolutely disgusts me. You know, did you ever hear of me before I showed up at your doorstep?”

I take a moment to think about that. Of course, I had heard of him, he does have an infamous reputation that follows him. I’ve also heard the General yell at Winter before over Qrow. 

“I have, you do have a reputation, you know. But I did hear about the one fight you guys had at Beacon during the Vytal Festival. I have to hand that one to you though.”

“Makes sense, now the conversation that happened after that? That’s a whole ‘nother story.” He chuckles as he yells to the front, “How much farther, Ruby?”

Ruby turns and yells behind her shoulder, “About there, Uncle Qrow!”

“Finally, I feel a bit exposed walking through these streets,” Qrow grunted.

“You worried we are going to get ambushed or something?” I ask Qrow.

Qrow nods. “We already knew that the Ace Ops were around. Maybe they called authorities here.”

I pat Qrow on the back. “I doubt that, they seemed like they were about ready to go back anyways. On that note, Marrow seemed really happy to see us.”

Qrow nods his head. “I was suspicious of that, but from the looks of it, he had no malicious intent. He just wanted to check up on you,”

“Marrow has always been a good kid, he does what he thinks is right. Even if we are on opposite sides now, I do hope he succeeds.”

“So you do have a heart?” Qrow teases.

“I’m pretty sure it is obvious by now, Qrow. If I didn’t have a heart I wouldn’t be standing here with you,” I throw back at him.

Qrow looks shocked as he places a hand on my heart. “It’s definitely there.”

I roll my eyes at Qrow and continue to walk forward. He walks beside me. I genuinely enjoy seeing Qrow be so happy. When he first came to Atlas, he looked like he had just come from the pits of hell. Seeing him brighten up as time has gone on has been rewarding in a sense. I do care for Qrow a great deal. I couldn’t imagine what I would be like now if I had never met him. He’s shed some light on some very subjects that needed some light. 

He’s had a tough life. That is very apparent through the way he talks and how he guards himself. Based on what I’ve gathered, I’m the first person other than family he has trusted in a while. I’m glad I could be that person for him.

Ruby’s yelling pulls me from my thoughts. “We are here!” 

I look at the building in front of us. It is in way better shape than the previous hideout, it seemed to be what looked like an apartment building.

“Isn’t this a bit obvious, Ruby?” Qrow asks as he walks up to where Ruby is standing. 

“Trust me, this building is very off the grid,” Ruby chimes in.

Pietro goes next. “The Ace Ops have already cleared this area for us, so we should be safe for the time being, but we will need to keep a low profile. As far as I’ve been informed, if they see any fluctuations in activity in any part of Mantle, they are researching the area.”

As I step inside the building, I notice how there is a big table in the middle of the room. “We are putting each team in its own room to save room, and before you ask, yes, Alpha Squad is it’s own team,” Ruby glances over to Qrow playfully as Qrow grumbles under his breath. 

Ruby starts to walk up the stairs, pointing rooms out as we go. 

“Here is where we will be staying,” directing that to the rest of her team. 

She walks forward to the next door and continues, “This is where Team JNOR is staying.” 

She continues to walk pointing out where everyone else would be staying. At the end of the hallway she points out Qrow and I’s room. She says her goodbyes and runs down the hallway before Qrow or I could even get a word out.

Qrow pushes open the door. “I swear I’ll get her back sometime for this.” 

I take a look around the room. There is a king sized bed, and a desk in the corner of the room. 

“I mean, it doesn’t look half bad?” I point out as I lay my blanket on my half of the bed, “I mean, it’s not like we haven’t shared a bed before.”

“I don’t even know what runs through her mind at times,” Qrow mentions as he throws his blanket to me. I lay out his blanket on the other side of the bed when we hear a scream coming from downstairs. 

“Everyone get down here!” 

I open the door and walk out, Qrow following closely behind. When we arrive downstairs, we take a seat at the far end of the table. 

“So as you know, we have ourselves in a predicament that I haven’t really mentioned yet, but it has been at the front of our minds this whole time. We are traitors of Atlas. Ironwood wants us dead or captured. Clover has been publicly announced as a traitor as well. Uncle Qrow came and talked to me earlier about our next steps. We are going to split into two groups, one focused on Atlas, and ultimately taking down Ironwood, and the other will focus on preparing our next moves against Salem. But all of us will need to be present for any attacks against Atlas as that is our main priority. We have no chance against Salem if Ironwood is well, doing whatever the hell he is doing.”

Ruby pauses and looks around the table, “I’m going to appoint Robyn and Clover the leaders of this whole Atlas thing. So Clover and Robyn, I really hope you two can work together. I will be doing everything with Salem, along with the rest of my team. Everyone else, you will fill in where needed.”

I nod towards Ruby, then look over at Robyn who is staring right back at me. I’m sure we can work together, hopefully. I’ve changed a bit since I was with the military. 

We all dwindle into our respective groups. Qrow follows me over to my group. “We are Alpha Squad, I can’t let my squad mate go unattended.” 

I laugh at Qrow’s comment as we walk over to the Happy Huntresses.

“I guess we are working together now?” I say to Robyn and she nods. 

Qrow looks between us and states, “Who likes a high risk, high reward mission?”

Robyn and I look over to him suspiciously. I never thought he was the ‘high risk, high reward’ type of person, but sometimes I can be mistaken. Robyn nods her head towards Qrow.

“Let’s just waltz right into Atlas Academy,” he says with a straight face.

I jump out of my seat and yell, “Are you crazy? We’ll all die!” 

That got the attention of everyone in the room as they all look over at our group, well me. 

Qrow stands up, “Yeah, I am serious, and no, we hopefully won’t all die. What other choice do we have? We need to know what we are up against before we do anything. We have May, and correct me if I’m mistaken, she can just make us poof.”

I glance over at May, then back to Qrow and nod, “I might not like it, but you do have a point.” I sit back down as the room goes back to their conversations, other than Ruby who comes over to our table.

“Is everything alright, Clover?” Ruby asks me.

I nod my head, “Everything is fine, I didn’t know your Uncle was such a risk-taker.”

Ruby laughs and pats Qrow on the back, “You go Uncle Qrow!” She jumps into the air as she runs back over to her team. 

Robyn nods her head, “If I’m honest, this will be the last thing they would be expecting. Good thinking, Qrow. Also, while we are up there, we should steal a few earpieces. First thing first, since Qrow proposed the idea, he will go, along with May. Clover you go as well. The rest of us will stay here.”

Robyn calls over Maria and explains the plan to her, as we would need a ship. Robyn turns back to the rest of us, “We’ll be putting this plan into motion at the crack of dawn. We don’t have all the time in the world to put Ironwood on his knees.”

Both Qrow and I nod as we walk back upstairs to our room.

“Are you nervous, Clover?” Qrow asks out of the blue.

“To walk into Atlas Academy? Of course. I know the place by heart, but I also know the defenses in place. While I can get us by some of them, there are some that well, I’m sure they have added since I left. They need an element of surprise as well.” I say back as I lay on the bed.

Qrow nods. “I would be lying if I wasn’t a bit nervous myself. I wouldn’t want to go back to the one place I was trying to get away from. Well, we all are trying to get away from Atlas now. But I’m sure you understand what I mean.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look any of the Ace Ops in the eye again. I don’t want to have to hurt them,” I mention.

“Hopefully you won’t have to, yet. I mean to take down James we are going to have to fight them,” Qrow stated.

“I really do wonder what they are doing, how are they doing. I mean, we saw Marrow, he seemed to be fine. But what about the others?” I sigh loudly as I roll over on my side.

Qrow puts a hand on my side. “I’m sure they are doing just fine, if that is what you are worried about. They are strong. But none of them are as strong as you are, Clover.”

I roll back over to face Qrow. “How can you say that?”

Qrow lays down next to me as our eyes meet. “I have never met someone as brave as you. You left everything you knew to be with us, to be with me. You risked your life to save Robyn and I, despite what you’ve been told all your life. You basically took a nosedive into the unknown. If that isn’t brave, I’m not sure what is.”

I’m speechless, I have no clue what to say. “Thank you. I can say the same for you, and before you interject, I will explain. You have been alone most of your life, blaming yourself for everything that happened. But you do have a very caring heart. But look at you, you’re still here aren’t you?” 

I smile at Qrow, and he smiles back. 

We just lay there in silence as we stare at each other. My eyes wander around his face, finally till they meet his eyes again, Qrow seemed to be doing the same thing. Qrow grabs my hand that is laying in front of me and squeezes it softly when all of a sudden, Ruby kicks the door open.

Qrow quickly lets go of my hand and he quickly sits up and looks at Ruby. Who looks like she is about to burst in excitement at any moment.

“What you need, kiddo?” Qrow asks Ruby.

Ruby shakes her head. 

“I was just coming up here to tell you the rest of us are headed to bed. Robyn said to tell you that if you aren’t downstairs when the sun rises she’ll bust down your door and take you in the clothes you’re wearing.” Ruby winks as she starts to close the door. “Goodnight, Uncle Qrow and Clover.”

“It’ll probably be smart if we get some rest as well,” I say to Qrow as I close my eyes. “Goodnight, Qrow.”

“Goodnight to you too,” Qrow whispers back.

I open my eyes slowly as I wake up in the morning, only to feel an arm draped across my side. The sun had not risen yet, but I can hear walking downstairs. As my eyes adjust to the darkness, I see Qrow’s face surprisingly close to mine, and his arm is draped on top of me. When did this happen?

I shake Qrow softly and he mumbles, “Whatcha need, Cloves.”

I chuckle at how sleepy Qrow is before saying, “It’s going to be dawn soon, don’t you want to get ready?”

“Let me sleep a while longer,” he says as he rolls over to his other side. 

I sigh and shake him again. “That wasn’t a question, Qrow, it’s time to get up.”

Qrow groans as he sits up. “Who agreed to go this early in the day?”

I stand up and put my hand on my hip. “You did!”

Qrow sighs as he gets out of bed and starts to get ready. I get changed as well. As soon as we are both done I open the door and head downstairs. “If I didn’t know any better, I would think we were trying to survive the apocalypse,” I say under my breath as we arrive downstairs.

Robyn waves at us and hands us some granola bars. “Eat up! We got a long day ahead of us!” 

Qrow and I went to sit at our respective spots at the table and started to eat our granola bars.

Robyn comes and sits down with us, along with May. “So, I’m going to explain what we hope to accomplish here. First and foremost, we are going to want to figure out what Ironwood is up to. Second is getting some communication devices. Pietro can then mess with them so Atlas cannot disable them, track them, or anything of the sort. Maria will be ready to pick you up whenever you are ready. For the most part, you will be on your own because we have no way of communicating with each other.”

Everyone, including myself nods, “Having earpieces would be really helpful. If anything, we need them to launch a full scale attack on Atlas Academy.”

Maria opens the door to the building. “Good, everyone is here. Let’s go! I can stay off the radar for now, but not much longer!”

All of us get up and run for the airship. I climb in last, shutting the doors behind me. Maria climbs up to the pilot seat and takes off.

Robyn speaks again, “I’ll be staying here with Maria just in case anything happens. I’m trusting you guys to get everything we need.”

We all sit there in silence, you could feel the tension in the air. From the front Maria yells, “Time to go!” 

I run and open the door and jump out of the airship. May and Qrow are right behind me. As I fall through the air I grapple to a lamp pole and pull myself towards it. I make a circle around it before releasing more line to slowly lower myself to the ground. Qrow and May land right behind me. May instantly uses her semblance to cover us.

“They can hear us, and if they get close enough see us. So talk as little as possible, and don’t go far,” May whispers to us and we walk forward. 

I give May a thumbs up as we slowly walk towards the entrance of Atlas Academy. I can see it slowly get closer and closer and I finally whisper as we stand at the door, “We are really doing this aren’t we?”


	4. 4

As we stand in front of the doors I sigh. I make a motion to go forward. We all walk forward into the inside of Atlas Academy. I glance around to see it mainly empty, it’s still pretty early in the morning. I start to walk to the elevator. The elevator is riskier, but also the only way to get to where we need to go.

We need to find our way up to the electronics room, and ultimately, Ironwood’s office. One will be easier to get into than the other. I click the button to go to the highest floor that you can access with this elevator. 

“We are going to the electronics room first. It will be easier to access. I don’t even know if we are going to be able to make it to the General’s office yet. Take what you can,” I say as the elevator is empty other than us. 

May and Qrow nod. The elevator dings letting us know we have arrived at the top floor. We step out and are greeted with a large room. There are guards on each side of the elevator across. I walk forward, they both look towards the elevator confused that no one came out. They walk forward towards the elevator. We all dodge to the side and run to the elevator they were guarding. I frantically click the button. The guards and investigating and don’t notice the elevator they were guarding is being used. We quickly slip into the elevator as I frantically start to click the button to make the doors close.

“Now, that was a close one,” Qrow grumbles to my side.

I nod my head to him as the elevator doors open to where only military personnel, personally approved by the General are allowed. We slowly walk out as I look in both directions. I make a motion to move to the right as we start heading to the hallway on the right. This is where top Atlas scientists work, and, well, our best chance at nabbing some earpieces and scrolls.

May and Qrow are keeping a good lookout as I walk along. We walk along the wall as most people are walking in the middle. To our right, I see a room that looks to be the room I always go to when Elm breaks her scroll. We maneuver into that room. To my surprise, there are earpieces and scrolls laying out ready to be taken. They might be easy access, but that means someone is going to come to get them, which means that if we take them, we will be even more tight schedule.

Ready to take the risk, I grab the earpieces and scrolls. I put an earpiece in my ear, not to use it, but for the comfort of having it nearby. Qrow does the same. I hand the rest to May to put in the bag. The scientist that must work in this lab walks in and starts heading for us. We all run to the right and dart out of the room into a very crowded hallway. 

Dammit. I just make a motion forward. We all sprint forward dodging all the people. There is no doubt they can see us, but the shorter time we are in sight the better. 

We meet up at the end of the hallway. I make a thumbs-up motion. Qrow and May make a thumbs-up motion back when all of a sudden I hear something in my earpiece. 

“Has there been a breach?” Rings out Elm’s voice.

Qrow and I look at each other as our eyes widen. We didn’t just steal any old earpiece, we stole the Ace Ops’ new earpiece. I start to sprint towards the elevator to go to the top tower, the others follow close behind. As other people exit the elevator, we walk into the elevator. 

But Marrow is in the elevator as well.

He glances between us as the elevator goes up, Marrow looks conflicted on what to do.

“So there has been a breach,” he mumbled under his breath, “and I’m stuck in an elevator with the intruders.”

“Fancy meeting you here, Marrow,” I say.

“Planning on turning us in, Lapdog?” Qrow taunts Marrow.

Marrow frantically looks between us, trying to decide the best thing to do. 

“I’ll give you time to run after this elevator opens, but I’ll be turning you in afterward.”

In my earpiece I hear Harriet’s voice, “Marrow! Update?”

Marrow looks around and reaches up towards his earpiece to respond. 

Qrow's fist collides with Marrow’s head, hitting him hard enough to knock him out cold. The elevator doors open as I pick up Marrow and throw him over my shoulder. Qrow gives me a pointed look.

“We can’t just leave him here, can we?” I point out to Qrow as we run out of the elevator.

“Well we could, you just don’t want to,” he retorts back. 

I hear Harriet’s voice through my earpiece. “Checked the cameras, there has been a breach! Marrow is unresponsive. Qrow Branwen, Clover Ebi, and May Marigold are inside this building as we speak. Get the security team to check all the cameras.” 

“We gotta get going,” I say as I sprint towards the General’s office. Luckily the door is open due to Vine walking out of it. We dash for the door and slip through undetected. 

I hear Vine’s voice, “The General’s office is clear, I was just in there.”

We all sigh in relief. We start to search the office for papers. I start going through the General’s desk. As I sort through papers I hear Qrow groan, “Where is what we need! We have limited time!”

I finally find a folder that seems to have notes of the meetings written down. I grab the folder as I hear a voice, “You said the General's office was clear? It isn’t. All units head to the General’s office.”

“Good thing we got these earpieces, we have to get out of here! I hopefully have the right folder!” I yell at Qrow and May even though Qrow could hear it.

The door opens and all the Ace Ops stand there, other than Marrow, because well, he’s knocked out behind me. General Ironwood is behind them.

“Well, what do we have here? I’m sorry your plan didn’t go,” the General paused for a moment, “as planned.”

I motion my head towards the window behind us to Qrow. May runs behind me as Qrow takes a shot at the window. It cracks. Qrow smirks and charges at the window, Harbinger in it’s scythe form. 

Harriet runs at Qrow from the side and just as she is about to hit him I wrap my line around her and throw her back into the Ace Ops. Ironwood takes a shot at us, and it hits me in the lower leg. Pain shoots through my body. Qrow hits the window and it shatters. Qrow flies out the window. May looks hesitant as she jumps out of the tower as well. I grab Marrow and backflip out the window despite the pain in my leg. Luckily, my Aura didn’t break.

Then, I’m in free fall. I keep hold of Marrow as I hear Ironwood scream in fury. I look down as the wind keeps pushing everything up. I don’t see Qrow, but May looks like she is about to throw up. I look to the sky, I’m going to have to try to live through this. I don’t think Qrow would’ve jumped out the window if he didn’t have a plan. I throw my line and it entangles around May. She looks up in surprise. I look to the right as I see a ship coming fast at us, with Qrow on it. As it nears us, it slows down. 

I can’t do much, I have May on my line, and Marrow on my shoulder, being held tightly. I shove Kingfisher between my arm and body as I see Qrow tying a rope to the ship. He then turns into a crow, grabs the rope and flies out to us. When he gets over to us, he turns back to Qrow and holds the rope, I grab his hand, which jerks all of us hard as we are falling. 

Kingfisher falls. 

“Fuck!” I scream. Kingfisher has May on it. But as I latch onto the rope and look down, May is just dangling there, her eyes wide. 

Qrow looks a bit bewildered as well.

“Damn, it looks like you all might have not made it if I didn’t wake up when I did, and oh do I have a headache. Thanks, Qrow,” Marrow states, holding on to Kingfisher.

Qrow rolls his eyes. “Let’s climb up before the rope decides to break.”

We all climb up the rope and get onto the ship. As May gets to the rope, I undo my line around her and she climbs up as well. Robyn looks shocked, “What in the world were you thinking? Jumping off one of the top floors? You almost got all of you killed!”

Qrow smiled, “Well we didn’t, didn’t we? Here, Pietro, we got earpieces and the scrolls.” 

I sigh, “I got shot. Luckily my Aura didn’t break, but my leg is in quite a lot of pain.”

Robyn frowns, “Go take a seat, Clover. We’ll get you some food when we get back.”

May walks over and hands them to Pietro. He instantly gets to work. We all go take our respective seats. I go and sit by Qrow, “Never thought you were this much of a thrill-seeker, Clover.”

I shrug. “We had to get out of there, and at that point there was only one way out, through the window. I honestly didn’t know it could be broken. Just my luck.” 

I wink at Qrow as I finally relax before saying, “We made it out alive, somehow.”

Qrow smiled and responded, “See? My crazy ideas do work!” 

We sit in silence, comprehending what just happened. After a while Maria yells, “We are back home! Jump off, kids!”

We all get up and jump out. Pietro comes along as well. I grab Marrow by his bicep and lead him to the house, as his wrists are restrained. Marrow looks calm and relaxed. I look over at Marrow, “I know you might get some nasty comments but thank you for helping us. If May had fallen, I’m not sure what we would’ve done.”

Marrow smiles back, “I didn’t sign up to see innocent people die. I’ll do what I can. The General’s ways have gotten just... more destructive, more fierce. He wants control over all of Atlas. He’s scared.”

I nod as we step through the door, Qrow behind us. Everyone's mouths just drop to the floor. 

Weiss was the first to speak. “What is he doing here?” She glares at Marrow. Marrow brings his arms up and attempts to wave. 

Before anyone can say anything else, Robyn speaks up. “Marrow saved May from, maybe, dying. Clover, Qrow, and May were falling through the air. They previously knocked out Marrow and he was with Clover. Clover lost grip of Kingfisher which had May at the end of it. Marrow grabbed it. A miracle he woke up when he did.”

Robyn goes over and grabs a few nutritious snacks we have stored and hands them to me. I start to eat them. Qrow pats me on the back.

Everyone nods then Ruby speaks, “So what do we do with him? Did we get the things you went for?”

I speak up, “Marrow here seems pretty unhappy with the General’s intentions, so I say we give him a chance. Second, yes, we did.”

Ruby nods and looks at Marrow, “You’ll know what the General is up to. I trust Clover, and if he trusts you won’t betray us, I’ll give you a shot.”

I nod and take the restraints off Marrow. He stretches his wrists then looks at Ruby. We all go to sit down.

“The General is basically becoming a tyrant. He wants full control over everyone. He is hunting everyone here down. As soon as he gets all of you, or so he plans, he wants to execute you. But he wants to do it, well I don’t really want to say.” Marrow shivers. 

What have you turned into, Ironwood? 

Marrow continues, “He is still wanting to move Atlas higher, with dust. He is rushing the training of the Huntsmen in Atlas, he’s preparing an army. He is preparing an army and running away.”

Ruby nods again. “Qrow, Clover, will you show him where he’ll be staying?” 

Qrow and I nod as we lead Marrow upstairs. 

“These are our living quarters. I know it’s not much, but you are kind of a part of a bandit group now.” I say.

Marrow nods. We stop at a closet and I hand him a blanket. 

“Since Penny is alone in her room right now, I think we’ll put you there. It’s not that we don’t trust you, well, maybe we don’t fully trust you yet. Yes, there are two beds,” Qrow says to Marrow.

We continue to walk towards Penny’s room and show him in. We make our goodbyes, then Qrow and I are on our way.

Qrow and I slowly walk in silence to our room. I push the door open and we enter our room.

Qrow instantly relaxes, “God Clover, I’m so glad you’re okay.”

He engulfs me into a hug and I hug him back. 

“I’m so glad you’re okay as well, Qrow. We took a massive risk today, and it could’ve gone wrong at any turn. I could’ve lost you, you could’ve lost me.”

We just stand there in silence, our arms wrapped around each other. I release from our hug and fall onto the bed, Qrow quickly follows. 

I speak up, “I feel I have so much to protect. I have you, and all of the kids. Those kids, they are amazing. I hope I can teach them a thing or two. Make an impact in some way.”

Qrow chuckles. “I think you already have, Cloves.”

I think back to the kids, they all seem so happy, no matter the situation we are put in. They stand up strong, even when they are on death's ledge. All so supportive of each other. Qrow speaks up again, “Just being around me makes a big difference. I’ve seen the way they look at you.”

“Maybe so, I will do everything I can to try to help them, to try to help you.”

“I know you will,” Qrow says back.

“Not to be a bummer, but we probably should go back downstairs,” I mention to Qrow.

Qrow nods and we both get up and walk downstairs. As we arrive downstairs, everyone turns to look at us.

“So where’ve you been? Even Marrow got down here before you two,” Yang says with a confident smirk on her face.

Qrow rubs the back of his neck, “We were just getting caught up in our room.”

“Mmmmmhmmmm,” Yang says as she clicks her tongue, “I’m sure that's the case.”

Everyone starts laughing as Pietro walks into the room, “I got the scrolls and earpieces working! They should be good to go!”

Ruby claps her hands as she stands to hand out an earpiece and scroll to everyone. After she hands out all of the earpieces and scrolls she speaks up, “Are we all on the same channel, Pietro?”

I place my earpiece in my ear, “Sure thing! All of you guys are on the same channel and should be able to communicate. Scrolls are all good as new as well. You can view all of your auras and everything you could do on your previous scrolls.”

Ruby nods and checks her scroll, “If anything this one is better!”

Pietro nods and heads back over to where he is staying.

Ruby speaks up, “So where are we going from here? Ironwood knows we are coming now, I mean we literally breached his office. Which is totally badass by the way.” She sends a playful look our way then continues, “He also knows we are around now and will be hunting us down more frantically.”

Blake speaks up, “I say we take things as they come while we think of a plan.” 

“Does everyone here agree?” Ruby asks. 

There is a chorus of ‘yeses’ that go around the room. 

“Then it is set! Take the rest of the right off and just relax. I know the team who went out today needs it. Especially Clover.”

“Thanks, Ruby,” I say. The pain in my leg is subsiding and should be gone by morning. 

“So what are we going to do, Qrow?” I ask.

Qrow smiles back at me. “Before anything I need a shower.”

Good point. I’ve been so busy I can’t even remember the last time I showered since I got here. Three days? Four? So many things have happened in such a short amount of time. 

I nod towards Qrow. “Sounds like a good idea to me.” 

This apartment building has a few working bathrooms. Well, it’s more like a combined shower room, like the ones you see at normal colleges. We walk to our room and grab a change of clothes. We walk together to the showers and step into the shower stalls.

After our respective showers, we meet back up in our room and laid on the bed. 

“Hot damn, that was a nice shower,” I laugh.

“It was definitely welcomed. How’s your leg feeling?” Qrow asked as he looked over at me.

“It feels a lot better, should be good as new by tomorrow,” I say back to Qrow as I sit up and stretch my arms, “I could do this all week, just laying here talking to you.”

Qrow chuckles, “I could as well, a nice rest would be welcomed with open arms. But sadly we have duties to uphold, and these kids to protect. But I’ll get us a day off soon, pull a few strings.”

“Now that sounds great,” All of a sudden a loud crash comes from downstairs. I stand up and run downstairs, Qrow in pursuit.

“What was that?” I say as I get downstairs, looking at the scene that has unfolded. Ruby is on the ground, a pan on her face. Yang is standing on top of the counter with another pan, ready to throw it. Weiss has a spatula, holding it like a spear. Blake holds a fork in her hand read to dash forward.

All of their heads slowly turn to Qrow and I, Ruby jumps up from off the floor, “Well, uh, you see, we decided to learn some new weapons?”

Qrow sighs loudly, “Those are your choice of secondary weapons? A pan, spatula, and a fork?”

“Maybe?” Ruby squeaks. She gets this look in her eyes as she says, “Attack!”

All of a sudden I see a pan come flying towards my head, I duck as it hits the stairs behind us. I give a pointed look to Qrow as we dart up the stairs to our room,.

We slam the door shut as we hear Ruby and Yang walking up the stairs.

“You almost got me decapitated by a pan you reckless asshole!” I say in a stern voice to Qrow.

Qrow winks at me and says, “But I didn’t, did I?”

We hear Ruby's voice taunting us, “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”

Yang snorts as we hear wooden clatter against the floor, “Weiss! We are supposed to be on the same team!” Yang shouts.

“Speak for yourself!” Weiss calls back.

“We need to find some weapons,” I state as I start to rummage around our room. I pick out a bottle filled with water, two pens, and we have the pan we stole from Yang. I throw a pen and the pan Qrow’s way, “Let’s go.”

We creep down the hallway as we hear the girls fighting in the dining room. We rush down the stairs and start stabbing the girls with our pens. They hit us back with their pans and spatulas. I pull the bottle out and dump all of the water on Ruby's head.

“Clover!” She says through fits of laughter. 

Everyone pauses to look at Ruby. We all put our weapons down and start to laugh at the scene that just went down. 

“Got you!” I say as I continue to laugh at Ruby. Qrow and I high-five as the rest of the teams come down to see the commotion. As they all see what just happened, they start to laugh as well.

“What happened here?” Marrow says as he walks towards us.

“Well, I poured water on Ruby in revenge for almost causing my decapitation,” I state as I stand up and pull Qrow away from the middle of the room.

We all hear the sirens sounding in the distance. I knew some people still lived in Mantle, and we are nearer to the populated parts.

“What is going on?” Penny says as she looks out the window.

“Have the Ace Ops found us?” Weiss asks as she stands up straight, looking worried.

I walk over to the door and look outside, ships coming down from Atlas. 

“We might have some trouble on our hands,” I state as I shut the door, “But step one is staying calm and ultimately moving upstairs.”

We all start to walk up the stairs and just as we arrive up the stairs, we hear the door come falling to the floor.

Qrow speaks in a quiet, but loud enough voice to sound urgent, “Well fuck. We need to hide, NOW.”


	5. 5

Ok, maybe we aren’t so hot at this ‘being a criminal’ thing. Some, well, most of us here haven’t been criminals before. I’m pretty sure the only one here that would have been a criminal here is Qrow. Seems right down his alley.

Qrow tugs on my hand urgently as we run up the stairs to our room. Qrow glances around the room, scanning it for any good hiding places. Qrow points to a hatch on top of the dresser. We hear footsteps slowly coming up the stairs. We hurriedly push the dresser to the dresser, which I climb on top of and crawl into the hatch. Qrow throws our towels and folded blankets up to me before pushing the dresser away. He turns into a crow and flies up here, quickly turning back as he arrives up here. Smart idea, doesn’t look like anyone is up here. We position the towers and blanket covering the door and we shut it.

I glance at Qrow and grab his hand, holding it. Hope all the kids found a good hiding spot, but they are smart, they’ll know what to do. I have my left hand on Kingfisher just in case anything happens. Maybe if they don’t find us here, they will clear this building and move on, and we can continue to stay here. 

The door to our room creaks open. I hear footsteps come into our room. 

Harriet speaks, “Where in the world are they? They couldn’t have gone far. This place looks like they were in it just as we came. Did you see the pans and the water mess on the floor? They have to be here.”

Elm speaks next, “Sure doesn’t seem like it. Yes, we know they were here, but we haven’t seen any signs of them. We have the place surrounded, and we haven’t seen them leave. But those kids are smart, I’ll give them that. They could’ve slipped away undetected.”

Harriet responds, “This room is clear.” Elm and Harriet head for the door, and she adds, “Where the hell is Marrow? If they had to leave in a hurry, they probably would’ve left him.”

I move my hand to my earpiece and click in on. “Harriet and Elm just cleared our room, and update?”

We hear rustling as Ruby’s voice comes through. “Our room hasn’t been cleared, I hear them coming our way? Do we stay put?”

Qrow taps in on his earpiece. “Stay where you are. They have no clue where we are.”

Penny speaks softly, “Our room was just cleared by Vine, Marrow is with us as well.”

I speak into the earpiece again, “Good. Stay where you are and let us know if anything alarming comes along.”

Qrow and I look at each other and exhale the breaths we didn’t know we’ve been holding in. The kids are safe so far, and so are we. Marrow isn’t betraying us and everything seems to be going okay, till it doesn’t.

The earpiece taps in with the frantic voice of Ruby, “Harriet and Elm just were outside our room, they are going to blow the place up! They said it really loudly too.”

My mind circles as my breath hitches. No. Way. But Qrow taps in, “Don’t move.”

Yang speaks up, “I trust you, Uncle Qrow, but this place is about to go boom according to them.

Qrow speaks again, “The sirens are still going off. Those sirens only go off if there is a Grimm Invasion, that’s how they are programmed. Hearing an explosion will only cause more panic. Second, why would they bring that many bombs if they weren’t planning on blowing this up in the first place, and finally if you are correct, she said it loudly so everyone could hear it, so we would panic and reveal ourselves. As much as this is a risk I don’t want to take, I’m willing to take it.”

I glance at Qrow with a worried look and scoot closer to him laying my head on his shoulder. We could die in a little bit, I trust Qrow, but this is a bomb threat we are talking about.

“It’ll be okay,” Qrow whispers to me as we hold hands again.

“Listen, Qrow, Just in case anything happens, I want you to know that I-” 

I get cut off.

“Harriet just left! Said that this building was clear since we didn’t come out! You were right, Uncle Qrow!”

Qrow rolls his eyes. “Good thing I was, kiddo. Stay in your spots for a bit longer. Make sure they are gone.”

“Now, that was a close one. They really should go deal with the Grimm invasion that is happening,” I say to Qrow.

“We really need to make sure we aren’t followed next time. If we didn’t have these earpieces that bomb situation would have been sticky.”

The sirens turn off, signaling that the grimm invasion is over. I crawl out of our space and jump down, Qrow follows in pursuit. We creep down the hallways, our weapons drawn. We creep down the stairs and see the door on the floor. Nothing is out of the ordinary.

I tap into my earpiece. “All clear, good to come out.”

Qrow and I put our weapons away and sit down at the table as the kids come down. Are we staying or moving? It would really suck to have to move again. Plus, they think we have already moved on from this place at the first sign of them coming.

Ruby speaks up, “Now that was scary.”

Everyone starts laughing quietly. We don’t know who is nearby.

She continues, “We need someone to fix the door, but I say we continue living here. They already cleared it. Also, thank you Uncle Qrow for keeping us safe!”

Qrow rolls his eyes. “If anything I put us all in more danger just by taking a chance.”

Ruby huffs and crosses her arms, “We got out undetected and it saved us a ton of trouble! If it weren’t for you, I would’ve been booking it.”

Maria comes stomping down the stairs. “You kids these days are so reckless. But I can’t say I’m much better, especially when I was young!”

Yang hits the table with her fist. “I was so ready for a fight!”

“Firecracker, we do not want unnecessary trouble,” Qrow says to Yang.

Yang raises her eyebrows. “You sound like Ruby.”

Qrow frowns and responds. “Actually, it’s the other way around. Ruby sounds like me.”

“I’m right here guys!” Ruby says looking between them. “And Qrow was a great mentor.”

Qrow looks down at the table, then looks up at Ruby and smiles. Robyn speaks up, “This also proves Marrow is loyal to us. He could’ve run away to them, or gave us away at any time.”

Marrow smiles and nods to Robyn, “I really don’t understand the General’s motives at this point. Your motives make way more sense.”

Ruby continues, “As much as I don’t want to do this, we are here to serve the people. I say we head to the inhabited part of Mantle and check and make sure everyone is okay. I know this is riskier, but the Ace Ops were focused on us, not the people.”

Everyone takes a moment to consider. Robyn speaks up, “I’m with Ruby on this one. I say we send a group to go check up on the citizens.”

“Happy Huntresses, along with Qrow and Clover will go to Mantle. The rest of us are going to look around the building. After that incident, we need some escape routes and backup plans.” Ruby states.

“Let’s go!” Robyn says as she stands up and waves us out the door.

We all start walking towards Mantle, which isn’t far off. We step and stumble over the wreckage. 

“Why don’t they just leave Mantle?” Qrow grumbles under his breath. 

As we arrive in Mantle, people are cautiously coming out of their houses. Robyn starts going around and checking on people. She waves us off and we start to do the same.

As we approach this one girl and her kid, she looks up in shock, “You’re Clover Ebi! The man wanted for treason!”

I’m honestly surprised I haven’t been recognized more, just my luck. I respond, “Hello, and yes, I’m Clover Ebi. I’m not going to hurt anyone, but I’m not going to watch my friends die.”

The girl smiles, “Ah, don’t worry. I wasn’t too worried you were going to hurt me. I’ve never met you, but to anyone that has logic, they would see you aren’t some killer. You didn’t want an execution, you didn’t kill anyone when doing it. Mr. Branwen and Robyn Hill weren’t criminals. There was no real proof of it.”

“Finally someone that has a mind around here,” Qrow says as he shakes her hand, “Name’s Qrow Branwen, sounds like you already know me though.”

The girl chuckles and shakes his hand, “My name is Carnelian. Pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“How are the people around Mantle doing? We heard the sirens go off,” I ask Carnelian.

She nods. “I think everyone is ok. We were lucky the grimm were small ones. The Ace Ops were nowhere to be seen.”

Yeah, they were hunting us down in our own house. I respond, “That’s good. We would’ve come and helped if you know, we weren’t being busy being framed as criminals.”

Carnelian chuckles, “That makes sense. You sure don’t look like criminals. Though news has been spreading around that some people breached Atlas Academy, and jumped out the window of the top tower. I have a sneaking suspicion that you guys were behind that.”

I rub the back of my neck, “Yeah that was us alright. About died too, but you do what you have to do.”

Carnelian laughs. “Skydiving with no safety gear! That is something I could get behind. I have to get my nephew back to his mother now. But if you ever need anything my house is right over there,” her finger points to a house down the street.

“Of course, I’m sure we’ll need some help sometime,” I bend down and look at her nephew, “You stay safe alright?”

Her nephew smiles and giggles, “I’m always safe, Mr. Ebi!”

Carnelian ruffles his hair, “You little liar!” 

Her nephew crosses his arms as the wave goodbye and walks off. Qrow looks at me, “Good with kids, eh?”

I shrug my shoulders, “He was too cute for his own good.”

Qrow chuckles as we continue to walk forward, stopping to check on citizens every so often.

“This is nice, knowing the people of Mantle don’t care about us. I mean considering I’m sure they know who we are,” I say to myself.

“Maybe they are just too busy admiring you instead of paying attention to who you are!” Qrow says in a smug tone.

“Did you just call me attractive, Branwen?” I say with a smirk on my face.

Qrow’s face is priceless, he just stops shocked as he stutters, “N-Not at all?”

“You don’t sound too confident about that, birdie,” I say smugly.

Qrow just crosses his arms and rolls his eyes as he walks forward. I decided to have a little fun back, “They could be looking at you too you know.”

He just looks at me shocked, “Now it sounds like you are flirting with me, Lucky Charm.”

“Maybe I am, just accept it, Qrow,” I smile and give him a nudge on the side.

Robyn’s voice comes through. “Time to head back you two.” Of course Robyn wants to give orders. 

We turn around and head towards camp, though it really is our home now. Home is where the family is? We’ve made the place our own, and the family is there. Well, not literal family, but they are family in a sense.

We meet backup with Robyn along our way back, and she asks, “How did it go on your end?”

“It went pretty well, we even made an ally,” I say confidently.

“Sounds like you two were quite busy then,” Robyn says as she opens the door to our house.

I nod to her as I walk in. Blake was the first one to speak up, “Well, how did it go?”

“It went pretty well, everyone seemed to be okay. They were really wondering where the Ace Ops were though,” Qrow responds as he takes a seat.

“Well I think we all know where they were,” Yang responds.

“How did it go on your guys end?” I ask.

Ruby perks up, “It went well! We added the typical more hiding places, and some escape routes. Totally inconspicuous.”

“You’ll have to show us sometime kiddo,” Qrow says to Ruby. “Sooner rather than later.”

Weiss stretches and starts to walk up the stairs, “I say it is time for bed. It’s been one stressful day.”

Everyone around the table nods and starts to head upstairs. I continue to sit in my seat, I sure could use some coffee right now. I rummage through the cupboards to no avail. We don’t even have a coffee machine. I sigh and settle for a bottle of water. This is the first time I’ve gotten alone time in a long time. I enjoy Qrow’s company, but alone time is nice as well.

It’s been a crazy few days, from becoming a criminal, to jumping out of General Ironwood’s window. That has to take the top spot of the craziest things I’ve done. I’ve done some crazy things, but jumping out of his window from who knows how high up? Crazy and dumb. But it was fun, and I don’t regret it. But I would not do that for fun.

We kidnapped Marrow, and he has helped us. We avoided confrontation with the Ace Ops, and have had the silliest fights. Is this what having friends is like? No, we are all family. From playing Hide and Go Seek 2.0 to having a fight with kitchen utensils. It’s been a rough, but fun couple of days, and I get to spend it with Qrow.

I finish my water and go and set the bottle on the counter. I head up the stairs to my room. Qrow looks at me as I walk in and shut the door.

“Where you been, Cloves?” He asks.

“I was just getting a drink and sorting out my thoughts,” I say as I start changing into a t-shirt.

“What you thinking about? Something on your mind?” Qrow asks me.

I come and lay onto the bed, “Just thinking about how fun and rough these past few days have been. Those kids have so much energy. Thinking about how my life has changed.”

Qrow nods as he comes and lays next to me, “I don’t know how those kids do it. They balance fun and work so well. Though work is basically what we want to do.”

“I’ve had so many near death experiences these past few days. Not saying that jumping out of a tower wasn’t fun, but I could’ve died.” I smile playfully at Qrow.

“Hey, but you didn’t, did you, we got everything we needed and a new ally,” Qrow responds, “I would say don’t be reckless, but it is kind of my fault we jumped out of the tower.”

“What other choice did we have? The General definitely had soldiers headed our way,” I responded.

“His scream was priceless,” Qrow pointed out, “He sounded so angry.”

“That sounds like the General when he has his window broken, and the criminals got away. Bet that's new to him,” I say while chuckling.

“He always got what he wanted, well at least most of the time. He needs to learn what it means to be one-upped,” Qrow responded with a smirk then continued, “He was a good guy, he really was. What happened to you, James?”

I look down a moment then respond, “He’s scared.”

“Well no shit,” Qrow replies, “He has Salem at his heels and a gang of criminals trying to stop him.”

“We have family to protect. He has himself to protect. That's a big difference,” I say to Qrow.

“You always fight harder when you have something, someone, to protect. That's a fact,” Qrow replies.

“We all have something to protect, don’t we?” I ask more as a rhetorical question, but Qrow responds anyways.

“I got you to protect, Cloves. Along with the kids. The kids want to protect each other.”

“I have you and the kids to protect,” I reply, “I don’t know about you, but I say it’s time for bed.”

Qrow nods, “I can agree with that.”

I shift my body closer to Qrow and close my eyes. It’s been one hell of a day.


	6. 6

As the sun rises I crack my eyes open and groan. I’m used to early mornings, but this early? I look to my side and Qrow is still sleeping like there is no light in the room. I seriously do not understand how some people can sleep like this. 

I sigh and get out of bed, careful not to wake Qrow. I put on my uniform and head downstairs. I see Robyn and Maria sitting at the table. I sit down in my usual spot as they pass me a cup of water.

“Good morning Clover,” Robyn says nodding to me.

“Good morning,” I grumble as I take a drink of water, “I seriously don’t understand how some people can sleep through this.”

“Different upbringings?” Maria questions as she takes a sip.

“I say we go on a coffee machine recall mission today,” I say to Maria and Robyn.

I hear a voice behind me. “Sounds like a great idea,” Qrow says as he sits next to me.

“I see you finally decided to get out of bed, Qrow,” I say with a smile.

He rolls his eyes and makes a motion for Robyn to get him a drink, “I think I’ll die tomorrow morning if I don’t have coffee.”

“Sounds like a solid plan,” I say. “But where would we get this coffee machine?”

“I’m sure there is one somewhere around here,” Qrow says taking a sip. “Well, I guess we know what Qrow and I are doing today.”

Ruby walks down the stairs next. “A coffee machine recall mission? Sounds great. I’ll leave that up to you and Qrow.”

Qrow and I look at each other then nod, this sounds like a mission I could get behind. I stand up and walk upstairs to grab Kingfisher, Qrow follows to retrieve Harbinger.

“You ready to head out?” I ask Qrow nodding towards the door.

“Sure am, Lucky Charm,” he says as we walk out of our room and head for the door.

“We’ll keep in touch,” I say to Ruby tapping my earpiece. They wave us goodbye and we set off.

We walk towards the part of Mantle that people are not living in, but still is in good shape. We aren’t going to steal a coffee machine from citizens.

“This is definitely how we beat Ironwood, with a coffee machine,” Qrow mused.

I sigh and laugh, then I turn to look at Qrow. “This isn’t how the military is supposed to be.”

Qrow looks back over at me and puts a hand on my shoulder. “I know. James has changed a lot, and not for the better.”

I nod as we continue to walk on. “He’s changed so much, I don’t know how any of the Ace Ops put up with it, this isn’t what we signed up for when we joined the military.”

We walk into a house and we start to look around. “I know you’re a good guy, Clover. You always try to do what you think is right. You don’t think what James is doing is right.”

I grab a few bottles and shove them into my bag. “I just want it to be like how it was, not what it is like now.”

I wave my hand to Qrow, we walk out of the house. Qrow grabs my hand and squeezes it. “And we’ll get it back to where it was before James became a tyrant.”

Where are we going to find a coffee machine, anyways? Wait, I have an idea. “You know that girl we met yesterday?” I ask Qrow.

Qrow nods giving me a questioning look. I continued, “I bet she knows where we could get one.”

I turn our path towards where Carnelian lives.

“Are you ready to see that nephew of hers?” Qrow teased.

I roll my eyes and nod, “That nephew of hers’ loves me.”

I turn the corner as we walk into the inhabited part of Mantle. I stop abruptly as I see soldiers all around the streets. I look at Qrow as we turn into an alleyway.

“Why are there all these soldiers?” I ask Qrow.

He shrugs. “Let's get to Carnelian’s house then get the hell out of here.”

We run down the alleyways as fast as we can. When we get to Carnelian’s house we see a window. I peek around the corner and see soldiers in the street. I sigh, “No clue how we are gonna get in.”

Qrow thinks a minute then starts banging his fist against the window, I’m surprised it didn’t shatter. Carnelian looks at the window with a gun drawn. When she notices it is us she exhales in relief and opens the window, “What in the world are you doing here?”

Qrow and I climb into her house through the window and sit down. I responded, “Well we initially came to ask where we could get a coffee machine, but what is up with all the soldiers in the streets?”

Carnelian sighs, “First off, I have a spare you can have, second, they are saying we need protection against the outside forces. Which I’m going to assume that means you guys.”

Qrow looks up. “He thinks we are coming to Mantle to get all of our supplies, so he has littered the place in soldiers.”

Carnelian and I nod as I tap my earpiece, “Soldiers in Mantle, don’t come near Mantle.”

I hear Ruby’s voice. “Are they staying there?”

Qrow taps into his earpiece this time. “Seems like it.”

Carnelian’s nephew runs down the stairs and waves to us. “Welcome back Mr. Ebi and Mr. Branwen!”

This kid is just too cute. Qrow smiles and gets up and shakes the little guy’s hand, “Did you behave?”

Carnelian chuckles and waits for his response.

“Nope!”

Everyone burst out laughing as Carnelian speaks, “Well, at least he is honest.”

I look over at Qrow and give him a pointed look when her nephew speaks up again, “Can I talk to Mr. Ebi alone?”

I stand up and walk over to him. “You can call me Clover, and what should I call you?”

He thinks a moment before saying, “My name is Asher.”

I nod and respond, “Alright, Asher, where do you want to go?”

He jumps excitedly, “My room!” 

He starts running up the stairs as I wave to Carnelian and Qrow, “Be back in a minute.”

As I enter his room I sit down on his bed, “What you need?”

Asher has so much energy but what he said next made me stop on the spot.

“Do you like Mr. Branwen?” He asks.

My mind reels. Do I like him? As a partner yes, but I’m smarter than that to know what Asher means. Would I get into a relationship with Qrow? Before my thoughts could continue Asher speaks up again.

“You do! I see it on your face!” He squeals.

I smile back and stand up. “Maybe I do, why does this matter to you?”

He pauses and thinks for a moment. “Mom says that people are scared to express feelings, sometimes they need a little push!”

This kid is really too cute. I nod and start opening the door as Asher rushes down the hall and yells, “Clover has something to tell you, Mr. Branwen!”

I hear Qrow say something to Asher. This kid really did mean he was going to give me a push. I sigh as I walk down the stairs, and when I arrive everyone is looking at me expectedly, while Asher is beaming.

Well, it’s now or never. I walk over to Qrow and grab his hands. “Listen, Qrow, I really like you. Not just in a partner way, but in a romantic way,” I pause as I look down, “So would you like to be my boyfriend?”

I look back up to see Qrow’s eyes wide, kind of like a broken machine as he slowly nods, “I would love to.”

I pull him into a hug, and he hugs me back. Carnelian and Asher clap in the background. Asher more excitedly than Carnelian.

We release from the hug and look around when Carnelian speaks, “Well, I sure wasn’t expecting that.”

Qrow smiles and chuckles. “Me either. Seems like little Asher is a good wingman.”

Asher looks at Qrow and beams even brighter if that is even possible. Carnelian hands me a coffee pot. “Here, I think it is best you guys get going out of Mantle, considering there are soldiers walking towards our door.”

I glance towards the door and through the window to see the soldiers coming our way. I nod to Carnelian. “Thanks!”

Qrow and I run for the window and hop back out in the alleyway. We run back down the alleyway maneuvering through. When we reach the outside of Mantle we slow down and look back. 

“That was eventful,” I say to Qrow

“It really was,” I say to Qrow as our abode comes into sight. We hold hands as we walk to the house, the door opening and a waving Yang. Her mouth drops as she runs back in the house, then Ruby peeks out the door in squeals. We walk in.

“We got the coffee machine,” Qrow says happily.

“What else did you get,” Yang says with a raised eyebrow.

Qrow glances at me and shrugs. “What else did I get?”

Yang sighs. “Come on Qrow, play it straight with me.”

“There is nothing straight about this.” Qrow sighs. “One hot ass boyfriend.”

The rooms goes dead silent and all of a sudden Yang yells, “Go get some dick Uncle Qrow!!”

Everyone burst out laughing. Qrow and I look at each other and just blush.

“That’s enough, Yang,” Qrow says sternly to Yang.

Yang just smirks. “It’s true though!”  
Qrow just grabs my hand and we head to our room. I follow behind and I shut the door behind us.

Qrow sighs. “I’m sorry you had to hear that.”

I shrug. “I found it quite entertaining.”

Qrow chuckles and pats the bed. “That little nephew of hers really does wonders?”

I chuckle. “He saw right through me, didn’t he?”

Qrow nods. “He really saw through both of us.” He grabs my hands and holds them.

“Not to ruin the moment or anything, but your hands are huge, Clover,” Qrow says with a grin on his face.

We both burst out laughing and I pull my hands away. “If you are gonna be like that, birdie, I just won’t let you hold my hands then.”

Qrow frowns and grabs my hands again. “Didn’t I say to not call me that, Boy Scout?”

I just shrug and kiss Qrow’s hands. “All better now?”

Qrow rolls his eyes. “Of course this is how you handle this situation.”

“I only handle the situation in the finest way, my dear,” I say as I smirk.

Qrow’s face falls and he hits my arm. “Clover!!!!”

Ruby runs into the room with a shovel pointed at me. “What did he do this time, Qrow!”  
My eyes widen as a shovel is pointed at my throat and Qrow smirks. “This man right here just was getting up to a little. Mischief. Take that as you may.”

Ruby frowns and leans on the shovel. “What did you do this time Clover?”

“Absolutely nothing this time, Ruby, I’m being framed!” I exclaim.

Ruby looks at Qrow and raises an eyebrow. Qrow just shrugs and Ruby walks out of the room but while saying, “Scoop your head outta the gutter, Clover.”

The door shuts and I sigh. “Your nieces are very over the top Qrow.”

Qrow snickers, “Oh I know, and I love them.”

Oh, of course, he does. “Who in your family is over the top?”

“Everyone is,” Qrow states in a very monotone voice.

I yawn and fall back to the bed. “I say it’s time for bed.”

Qrow nods, “I agree.”

Qrow falls back onto the bed as we close our eyes and wrap our arms around each other. What a day, but in a good way.


End file.
